Scan barcode
A review by elisability
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3.0
3.5 stars
Charlie is a fifteen-year-old young man starting high school. He is the youngest of three siblings, has few friends, and is generally considered weird by fellow students. He meets Patrick and Sam, eighteen-year-old seniors, and becomes close especially with them, but also with their whole group of friends. He goes to parties with them and experiences with "regular teenage things" - sex, alcohol, drugs... The whole book is epistolary, written as letters from Charlie to an unknown friend. He talks about current events with his friends and family, things that happen in school, and also his past, his aunt Helen, mental issues and stays in the hospital.
I think this is the kind of book that every time I think of it I’ll have a different appreciation of it, and would give it a different rating. There were moments I wanted to give it five stars for the poignancy of the story itself, and others I felt like only going with two stars because I was annoyed with Charlie’s way of writing (but the whole thing wouldn’t have worked if told any other way... I don’t know, I’m confused by it all...) So I settled on 3.5 as a compromise.
I did really like how nothing felt like it was forced. I mean, looking back on it, a lot happened during that single year of Charlie’s life, but it all felt organic, like nothing was forced by the author to make something dramatic happen. It felt like a year that could happen in a normal person’s life.
This is definitely not going to enter in the ranks of my favourite books, but I can see why it’s so beloved in a certain generation.
Charlie is a fifteen-year-old young man starting high school. He is the youngest of three siblings, has few friends, and is generally considered weird by fellow students. He meets Patrick and Sam, eighteen-year-old seniors, and becomes close especially with them, but also with their whole group of friends. He goes to parties with them and experiences with "regular teenage things" - sex, alcohol, drugs... The whole book is epistolary, written as letters from Charlie to an unknown friend. He talks about current events with his friends and family, things that happen in school, and also his past, his aunt Helen, mental issues and stays in the hospital.
I think this is the kind of book that every time I think of it I’ll have a different appreciation of it, and would give it a different rating. There were moments I wanted to give it five stars for the poignancy of the story itself, and others I felt like only going with two stars because I was annoyed with Charlie’s way of writing (but the whole thing wouldn’t have worked if told any other way... I don’t know, I’m confused by it all...) So I settled on 3.5 as a compromise.
I did really like how nothing felt like it was forced. I mean, looking back on it, a lot happened during that single year of Charlie’s life, but it all felt organic, like nothing was forced by the author to make something dramatic happen. It felt like a year that could happen in a normal person’s life.
This is definitely not going to enter in the ranks of my favourite books, but I can see why it’s so beloved in a certain generation.